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Posts Tagged ‘music class’

And so it started, long ago when I was a young, energetic and probably an A.D.D. child; my secret affair with rhythm began. To keep me busy, and somewhat pacified I was given a floor full of pots and pans to play with in the kitchen while mom prepared dinner. Considering my Dad was already a drummer my mom was able to put up with all of that racket. Actually, my mom was a singer in the same Country and Western band my Dad was in back in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Sometimes while in my high chair I would get that natural internal feeling of some kind of rhythm, which caused me to start rocking myself back and forth to the point of tipping. My Dad was always warning me that I was going to tip all the way over. He would tease that he was going to let me fall, but he always caught me before I hit the ground. While growing up I can’t count how many times that old saying “dropped when I was a baby” comment was been directed at me. I just seemed to have an impulse to be in constant motion.

I recall many times not being able to sit on the couch without rocking forward and bouncing off the springy seats. Maybe that’s why no one wanted to sit next to me watching TV? I remember clicking my teeth and tongue together making up beats or repeating one I heard sometime during the day on the radio etc. There was always a song or a drum beat in my head even to this day. I don’t think there is more than a minute or two that goes by without a song being repeated or improvised in my internal radio. That constant beat became a trusted friend and even a therapist of sorts through all the times when life became confusing or overwhelming.

I learned how to channel that inside rhythm to the real world life outside my head by graduating from the pots and pans to my Dads drum kit around the age of ten or eleven. Dad would show me something and I would repeat it over and over. It was obvious to my parents that I needed to take lessons to further my talent. I then joined music class in grade school and continued all through high school.

My progression really took off when a friend told me he was in a marching band and they had a huge drum section. Cool, more stuff to hit! That band taught me more than just my craft; it showed me how to be a true musician and how important it was to practice. It became my obsession to be able to play as well as my instructors, and in my final year I became an instructor myself.

That’s when my secret love affair truly began and she’s still with me now. I learned so many lessons in that band, like “never give up”, “you never stop learning”, and “there’s always someone better than you”. I repeat these words to each of my students to this day. I just don’t yell it like they used to back then. My motto now while teaching is: There is no such word as can’t, all you need to do is practice then you can! Simple.